by Jackie Kucinich, USA TODAY

by Jackie Kucinich, USA TODAY

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Congress would conduct a "meaningful conversation" about gun laws over the next few weeks to help prevent another tragedy like the one that took the lives of 20 children and eight adults, including the shooter, in Newtown, Conn., on Friday.

Reid, a pro-gun-rights Democrat, said in his remarks on the Senate floor Monday that the reality is "we are not doing enough to protect our citizens."

"In the coming days and weeks, we will engage in a meaningful conversation and thoughtful debate about how to change laws and culture that allow this violence to continue to grow," he said. "We have no greater responsibility than keeping our most vulnerable and most precious resource, our children, safe. And every idea should be on the table as we discuss how best to do just that."

The remarks are a marked change from those made by Reid in July after a mass shooting inside an Aurora, Colo., movie theater that killed 12 and injured dozens more. Reid said there was no time to debate the firearms issue in the Senate and was non-committal when asked whether such a debate was possible next year.

Reid is the third pro-gun-rights Democrat to come forward and say gun laws need a review after the Newtown shooting. Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Mark Warner of Virginia also said Monday that new laws need to be discussed.

Manchin, a vocal pro-gun-rights advocate who has an A rating from the National Rifle Association, said he would be open to a discussion on restricting assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.

"We've never been in these waters before â?? we've had horrific crimes throughout our country, but never have we seen so many of our babies put in harm's way and their life taken from them and the grief," he told CNBC. "That's changed me, and it's changed most Americans I would think."

Connecticut police said the victims at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School were killed by a high-powered assault rifle.

The three senators' comments came the day after President Obama made an impassioned speech in Newtown in which he indicated that lawmakers had failed their children, saying, "We can't accept events like this as routine. ... Are we prepared to say such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?"

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is scheduled to meet with representatives from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence on Tuesday afternoon. On Monday evening, members of the Connecticut congressional delegation hosted a vigil for Sandy Hook in the Russell Senate Office Building.

Manchin, a life-long hunter who once used the climate change bill for target practice in one of his political ads, mentioned the assault weapons bill being crafted by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., as one of the proposals that merited discussion.

Warner said "enough is enough" during an interview with a Virginia TV station. "I think most of us realize that there are ways to get to rational gun control," he said. "There are ways to grapple with the obvious challenges of mental illness."

The NRA has yet to comment on the incident in Newtown, and this weekend, it appeared to have pulled down its Facebook page.

Manchin said he had spoken to the NRA, and he wanted the group "engaged in this dialogue" to help craft a "reasonable" solution.

"They are going to be a strong participant, and they should be at the table, and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure they are," he said.